Iodine and The Thyroid — Worth A Second Glance
If you’ve never been iodine-deficient, your thyroid will tend to stay normal in function and size if you consume up to several milligrams of dietary iodine daily. If you’ve been deficient, you may be hypersensitive to iodine. In my experience, this is not a problem for most women, and even hypersensitive individuals can just gradually adjust their levels upward.
Salt as the enemy. There is a common perception that salt itself is dangerous. Because excessive sodium intake can increase the risk of hypertension, as many as 7 out of 10 women avoid or rarely use it. What’s more, the American Medical Association has recently suggested the USFDA remove salt from the list of foods “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS)!
Contrary to popular belief, four-fifths of the salt in American food is not iodized. That would be fine if we only consumed fewer over-salted, processed, prepackaged, and fast foods (which do not contain iodine), while increasing our intake of sea foods, alkalizing mineral salts (such as potassium citrate, calcium carbonate, calcium ascorbate), and quality iodized sea salt. Not only would we see fewer problems with hypertension, we’d be healthier in every way — with most of us able to excrete any extra sodium we might consume.
The problem with other halogens. Iodine deficiency may also be related to other halogens — non-metals such as fluoride, chloride, and bromide, which are replacing iodine in the body. Most public water drinking supplies include the first two. Perchlorate (which may derive from rocket propellant, Chilean nitrate fertilizers, or other sources) is known to inhibit iodine transport in the body and thyroid function. Some scientists believe the omnipresence of perchlorate is “putting future generations in peril.”
Bromide is also widely present — in soil and crop fumigants as well many foods and drugs. In the 1960’s, iodine was added as an anticaking agent to bakery products, but because of misplaced fears of iodine toxicity (“iodophobia”), it was replaced with bromine in the 1980’s. So we’re ingesting a lot of these halides, which research suggests compete with iodide for absorption and uptake in the body. This means they function as goitrogens (substances that suppress thyroid function by interfering with iodine uptake/accumulation).
According to leading iodine expert, Dr. David Brownstein, iodine will bind to fluoride, chloride, and bromide, as well as to mercury, so these molecules can be removed from the body. But that process depends heavily on having adequate iodine in the body. If you are iodine-deficient, know that other toxic chemicals have taken its place in your body so that when you then add it back in, you’re both detoxing these chemicals and adjusting to the new iodine.
Factors impacting our iodine intake:
- Iodine’s relative scarcity in most environments
- Iodophobia
- Changes in our diet and environment
-Kopp, P. 2008
Do we need mandatory universal salt iodization?
If all salt in the US were iodized, a five-fold increase in iodine intake could take place without increasing our salt intake.
-Dasgupta, P., et al. 2008
How’s your iodine? — iodine testing and treatment
It’s always best to solve the underlying causes of symptoms. If you have symptoms of hypothyroidism, fibrocystic breasts, fatigue, or brain fog, you may want to rule out iodine deficiency as a potential cause or contributor. Iodine functions as a chelating agent, a powerful antioxidant, and as a player in the metabolism of many other hormones, including adrenal and sex hormones — so it’s important to be sure you have enough!
Based on my clinical experience and what I’ve learned from my colleagues, I consider the possibility of iodine deficiency in each new patient I see. Depending on a woman’s symptoms and circumstances, I may also test her iodine levels using a 24-hour iodine/iodide loading test. This test is controversial, because preparation and collection guidelines must be followed carefully to obtain accurate results. The individual being tested avoids iodine and other halogens before undergoing the test then is “challenged” by taking an amount of iodine. After that, the excretion amounts of iodine and certain other elements from the halogen family are measured.
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